Cyberattack at grocery stores, pharmacies worries Minnesota shoppers
While Minnesotans are no longer struggling to get prescriptions filled, they could have trouble filling their shopping carts.
A cyberattack at food distributor United Natural Foods Incorporated has caused problems for its customers, which include Cub Foods, Whole Foods, and some co-ops.
UNFI released a statement saying it had taken some systems offline to investigate the breach, adding:
"As soon as we discovered the activity, an investigation was initiated with the help of leading forensics experts and we have notified law enforcement. We are assessing the unauthorized activity and working to restore our systems to safely bring them back online. As we work through this issue, our customers, suppliers, and associates are our highest priority. We are working closely with them to minimize disruption as much as possible."
The problem isn't just leading to potentially empty shelves. Pharmacy systems had to be shut down.
On Wednesday afternoon, UNFI said all of its Cub pharmacies affected by the disruption are back open and available to fill prescriptions.
"We appreciate how challenging this was for our pharmacy customers and we are thankful for their patience," UNFI said in a statement. "We are also grateful for our pharmacy workers who continue to assist our valued customers every day with their prescription needs."
WCCO talked with a triage nurse in the Twin Cities. She didn't want to share her identity, but she did want to share the headache the Cub Foods pharmacy disruption is causing her patients.
"Anytime you transfer a controlled substance to a pharmacy that a pharmacy isn't familiar with the patient, they need to call us and get all this information on the patient. So, then they're waiting even longer for their prescriptions. We have one patient who's been waiting four days to get her prescription filled," the nurse told WCCO. "And then some of the medications we're prescribing have shortages on them. So, they were getting them reliably from Cub and now they're being told that they've got to call around everywhere else to find shortages. It's wild."
The nurse tells WCCO people are worried that their personal information and medical history was stolen.
'It's kind of scary," said customer Otto Megles. "I had a delivery due today. I got a text about 6:30 this morning saying it was canceled. I asked if they could process my order at a later time and date, and they said probably not until the weekend."
Seward Community Co-Op says it has been impacted by the cyber attack as well.
"UNFI has not been shipping product, though National Cooperative Grocers (NCG) negotiated one or two tiny deliveries to help offset the lack of supply. We don't expect much product from UNFI until next week," Seward Community Co-op said in a statement.
UNFI says it started on Wednesday gradually bringing its ordering and receiving capabilities back online, and that it continues to work closely with customers to minimize disruptions.
WCCO reached out to Cub Foods for a statement to learn how many pharmacies were affected and the company's message to customers. WCCO is waiting to hear back.
